the realities of agricultural production in the 21st century.” Either way, the fact that many farmers are prosecuted by the Environment Agency for pollution or waste offences as they struggle to adhere to constantly tightening regulation, demonstrates that environmental legislation is crucial to the protection of the land where any such development is placed. Following the withdrawal and refusal of Nocton Dairies' plans, one of the directors, Peter Willes, had to pay over £23,000 when he accepted responsibility for three environmental offences, two of which related to pollution of water courses. All involved also learned that social media plays an important part in 21st century campaigning as while they had no direct impact on the withdrawal of the application, thousands of supporters were gained via the range of sites named earlier. However, it also became clear that as well as factual information, a number of myths and untruths were also being propagated over social media - one led to a petition with 15,000 signatures being withdrawn as it falsely claimed hormones and tail docking would form part of the plan, prompting concerns that support generated in this way might contain little substance. Campaigners also learned that developers will both take issue with their efforts and will threaten legal action where they feel inaccuracies have been portrayed; Nocton Dairies' referral of local group CAFFO to the Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom) was 'informally resolved' when CAFFO notified the ASA that the leaflet had already been distributed and there were no immediate plans to publish another, stopping the investigation in its tracks. At a later date, another large scale farm developer, Midland Pig Producers, threatened legal action against the Soil Association because of unsubstantiated and libellous allegations. References External links Advertising Standards Authority British Cattle Veterinary Association Campaign to Protect Rural England Compassion in World Farming European Food Safety Authority Animal Health and Welfare Panel Farm Animal Welfare Council Nocton Dairies Nocton in Lincolnshire Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals The Campaign Against Factory Farming Operations This is Dairy Farming World Animal Protection Economy of Lincolnshire Intensive farming History of agriculture in England Farms in England Dairy farming in the United Kingdom 2009 in England 2010 in England Controversies in England